Duncan McLean

Well. Huh. Short stories that have great "eye dialect" by this Scottish author. Who coined that phrase, Sparrow? The accent is conveyed really well, like you can hear it in the mind as you read. But I didn't like most of them. Those that worked for me were great, funny and full of cussing and the grit of life. The rest felt odd, unfinished or pointless. With a short story, with any book actually, I look for a storyline, for something to happen or unfold or splat or be explained. I'm a simple reader. Take me somewhere. Show me something. Anything. A lot of these seemed blobby on the ends, or like there needed to be a lot more words to finish. Or maybe I didn't like how neutral or down they left me at the end. Err, so it could be the season or my mood that didn't receive this as well as it could've been. The accent stuff and idioms and that one bit of Cockney I caught were fun, though.… (more)